as the direct invitations to sin; in both these cases the body must suffer more austerities, even such as directly are contrariant to every passionate disturbance, though it be not ever sinful in the instance. All mortifiers must abstain from every thing that is unlawful; but these, that they may abstain from things unlawful, must also deny to themselves satisfaction in things lawful and pleasant: and this in a just proportion to the end, the subduing the passions, lest their liberty and boldness become licentious. And we shall easier deny their importunity to sin, when we will not please them in those things in which we may such in which the fear of God, and the danger of our souls, and the convictions of reason and religion, do not immediately co-operate. And this was the practice of David, when he had thirsted for the water of Bethlehem, and some of his worthies ventured their lives, and brought it; "he refused to drink it, but poured it upon the ground unto the Lord";" that is, it became a drinkoffering unto the Lord; an acceptable oblation, in which he sacrificed his desires to God, denying himself the satisfaction of such a desire, which was natural and innocent, save that it was something nice, delicate, and curious. Like this was the act of the fathers, in the mountain Nitria, to one of which a fair cluster of dried grapes being sent, he refused to taste them, lest he should be too sensual and much pleased, but sent them to another, and he to a third; and the same consideration transmitted the present through all their cells, till it came to the first man again; all of them not daring to content their appetite in a thing too much desired, lest the like importunity, in the instance of a sin, should prevail upon them. To these persons, the best instruments of discipline are subtractions, rather than imposition, of austerities; let them be great haters of corporal pleasures, eating for necessity, diet spare and cheap; abridging and making short the opportunities of natural and permitted solaces'; refusing exterior comforts; not choosing the most pleasant object; not suffering delight to be the end of eating, and therefore separating delight from it as much as prudently they may; not being too importunate with God to remove his gentler hand

u 2 Sam. xxiii. 17.

Apud Pallad. in Histor. Lausiac.

y Quantò quisque sibi plura negaverit, à Diis plura feret.-Hor, iii. 16, 21.

of paternal correction, but inuring ourselves to patient suffering, and indifferent acceptation of the cross that God lays upon us, at no hand living delicately, or curiously, or impatiently. And this was the condition of St. Paul, suffering with excellent temper all those persecutions and inconveniences, which the enemies of religion loaded him withal; which he called "bearing the marks of the Lord Jesus in his body," and "carrying about in his body the dyinga" or mortification" of the Lord Jesus:" it was in the matter of persecution, which because he bare patiently, and was accustomed to, and he accepted with indifference and renunciation, they were the mortifications and the marks of Jesus; that is, a true conformity to the passion of Christ, and of great effect and interest for the preventing sins by the mortification of his natural desires.

16. Thirdly: But in the pale of the church, there are, and have been, many tall cedars, whose tops have reached to heaven; some there are that choose afflictions of the body, that, by turning the bent and inclination of their affections into sensual displeasures, they may not only cut off all pretensions of temptation, but grow in spiritual graces, and perfections intellectual and beatified. To this purpose they served themselves with the instances of sack-cloth, hard lodging, long fasts, pernoctation in prayers, renunciation of all secular possessions, great and expensive charity, bodily labours to great weariness and affliction, and many other prodigies of voluntary suffering, which Scripture and the ecclesiastical stories do frequently mention. St. Lewis, king of France, wore sack-cloth every day, unless sickness hindered; and St. Zenobius, as long as he was a bishop. And when Severus Sulpitius sent a sack-cloth to St. Paulinus, bishop of Nola, he returned to him a letter of thanks, and discoursed piously concerning the use of corporal austerities. And that I need not instance, it was so general, that this was, by way of appropriation, called "the garment of the church," because of the frequent use of such instruments of exterior mortification: and so it was in other instances.

b Deposuerunt seculi byssum, et sumpserunt ecclesiæ vestimentum, quod est cilicium. — Ruricius, ep. 20. Euseb. lib. ii. Hist. c. 22. Clem. Alex. Padag, lib. ii. c. 1.

St. James neither ate flesh nor drank wine; St. Matthew lived upon acorns, seeds, and herbs; and, amongst the elder Christians, some rolled themselves naked in snows, some upon thorns, some on burning coals, some chewed bitter pills and masticated gums, and sipped frequently of horrid potions, and wore iron upon their skin, and bolts upon their legs, and, in witty torments, excelled the cruelty of many of their persecutors, whose rage determined quickly in death, and had certainly less of torment than the tedious afflictions and rude penances of Simeon, surnamed Stylites. But as all great examples have excellences above the ordinary devotions of good people, so have they some danger and much consideration.

17. First, therefore, I consider, that these bodily and voluntary self-afflictions can only be of use in carnal and natural temptations, of no use in spiritual: for ascetic diet, hard lodging, and severe disciplines, cannot be directly operative upon the spirit, but only by mediation of the body, by abating its extravagancies, by subtracting its maintenance, by lessening its temptations; these may help to preserve the soul chaste or temperate, because the scene of these sins lies in the body, and thence they have their maintenance, and from thence also may receive their abatements. But in actions which are less material, such as pride, and envy, and blasphemy, and impenitence, and all the kinds and degrees of malice, external mortifications do so little co-operate to their cure, that oftentimes they are their greatest inflamers and incentives, and are like cordials given to cure a cold fit of an ague, they do their work, but bring a hot fit in its place and besides that great mortifiers have been soonest assaulted by the spirit of pride, we find that great fasters are naturally angry and choleric. St. Hierom found it in himself, and Ruffinus felt some of the effects of it. And, therefore, this last part of corporal mortification, and the choosing such afflictions by a voluntary imposition, is at no hand to be applied in all cases, but in cases of lust only, and intemperance, or natural impatience, or such crimes which dwell in the senses and then it also would be considered, whether

• Εν πλησμονῇ γὰρ κύπρις· ἐν δὲ τοῖς κακῶς

Πράσσουσιν οὐκ ἔνεστιν ἀφροδίτη βροτοῖς. - Antiphan.

or no rudeness to the body, applied for the obtaining patience, be not a direct temptation to impatience, a provoking the spirit, and a running into that, whither we pray that God would not suffer us to be led. Possibly such austerities, if applied with great caution and wise circumstances, may be an exercise of patience, when the grace is by other means acquired; and he that finds them so, may use them, if he dares trust himself: but as they are dangerous before the grace is obtained, so when it is, they are not necessary. And still it may be inquired, in the case of temptations to lust, whether any such austerities, which can consist with health, will do the work? So long as the body is in health, it will do its offices of nature; if it is not in health, it cannot do all offices of grace, nor many of our calling. And therefore, although they may do some advantages to persons tempted with the lowest sins, yet they will not do it all, nor do it alone, nor are they safe to all dispositions: and where they are useful to these smaller and lower purposes, yet we must be careful to observe, that the mortification of the spirit to the greatest and most perfect purposes, is to be set upon by means spiritual, and of immediate efficacy; for they are the lowest operations of the soul, which are moved and produced by actions corporal; the soul may from those become lustful or chaste, cheerful or sad, timorous or confident: but yet even in these the soul receives but some dispositions thence, and more forward inclinations: but nothing from the body can be operative in the begetting or increase of charity, or the love of God, or devotion, or in mortifying spiritual and intellectual vices: and therefore those greater perfections and heights of the soul, such as are designed in this highest degree of mortification, are not apt to be enkindled by corporal austerities. And Nigrinus, in Lucian", finds fault with those philosophers who thought virtue was to be purchased by cutting the skin with whips, binding the nerves, razing the body with iron: but he taught that virtue is to be placed in the mind by actions internal and immaterial, and that from

· Δῆλος δὲ ἦν καὶ τῶν τοιούτων κατεγνωκώς φιλοσόφων, οἳ ταύτην ἄσκησιν ἀρετῆς ὑπελάμβανον, ἣν πολλαῖς ἀνάγκαις καὶ πόνοις τοὺς νέους ἀντέχειν καταγυμνάσωσι, τοῦτο μὲν δεῖν οἱ πολλοὶ κελεύοντες, ἄλλοι δὲ, μαστιγοῦντες· οἱ δὲ χαριέστεροι, καὶ σιδήρῳ τὰς ἐπιφανείας αυτῶν καταξύοντες. ἡγεῖτο γὰς χρῆναι πολὺ πρότερον ἐν ταῖς ψυχαῖς τὸ στεῤῥὸν Touтo nai àradis nataonevácal.- Lucian. Nigrin. Bipont. vol. i. p. 50.

thence remedies are to be derived against perturbations and actions criminal. And this is determined by the apostle in fairest intimation, "Mortify, therefore, your earthly members," and he instances in carnal crimes, "fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness," which are things may be something abated by corporal mortifications: and that these are, by distinct manner, to be helped from other more spiritual vices, he adds, "But now, therefore, put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, and lyingf." To both these sorts of sins, mortification being the general remedy, particular applications are to be made, and it must be only spiritual, or also corporal in proportion to the nature of the sins: he seems to distinguish the remedy by separation of the nature of the crimes, and possibly also by the differing words of " mortify" applied to carnal sins, and put offi" to crimes spiritual.

18. Secondly: But in the lesser degrees of mortification, in order to subduing of all passions of the sensitive appetite, and the consequent and symbolical sinsk, bodily austerities are of good use, if well understood and prudently undertaken. To which purpose I also consider, no acts of corporal austerity or external religion are of themselves to be esteemed holy or acceptable to God, are nowhere precisely commanded, no instruments of union with Christ, no immediate parts of Divine worship; and therefore, to suffer corporal austerities with thoughts determining upon the external action or imaginations of sanctity inherent in the action, is against the purity, the spirituality, and simplicity of the Gospel. And this is the meaning of St. Paul, "It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats, which have not profited them which have walked in them';" and, "The kingdom of God consists not in meat and drink, but in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost";" and,

* Ο ἐγγὺς κυρίου πλήρης μαστίγων. — Clem. Αlex. Pedag. 2.